Tag Archives: Consumer

This is one of those company’s that I do not have a major problem with I just don’t get why some one would pay to offer reviews or read reviews. I also am bothered by the slick marketing and fluff in the print copy. What do I mean by fluff? its like a new car sticker that list 100 items on it. The sticker shows things like included 4 tires, side view mirrors, trunk carpet. No shit you really have to tell me that it will come with 4 tires? mirrors? carpet? What I can get 4 crates instead? Well angies list on their website. List MSNBC, NY TIMES, FOX & FRIENDS, TODAY and US NEWS prominently like they are some kind of endorsement. In reality they say very little more than fluff.

Why Angie’s List is better than free review sites:

I in fact know of one company and have worked for another that offered their employees incentives to go home and write phony reviews about the company they work for so the company’s rating on angies list can go up. (will tell you in a minute why rating to a company are important) NO anonymous reviews. How dopey do you really have to be to believe this one? Anybody can makeup a Hotmail, yahoo, Gmail account to write positive reviews on a company.

The next thing that bothers me is this statement:

Companies can’t pay to be on Angie’s List

Reviews come from real people like you, not anonymous users

Companies can’t pay to be on angies list. True. Well sort of. This is slick and in my book equal to the “reach around” Companies do not pay to get into angies list, but once they are on angies list they pay big to get their company higher on the list! Here is a small sample of a letter a company received once they were on angies list. Make sure members choose you by becoming a featured company on Angies list. Web placement or keyword advertising: Appear on the first page of search results so members can easily find and access your reviews. Call center advertising. Be 1 of only 4 referrals provided when a member calls Angies list looking for a highly rated service provider in your category. This last one is the one that really bothers me, if I am working on the premise that I should trust a company because of the reviews, and then I call Angies list call center and they recommend the top 4 company’s because the company’s paid to become one of the top 4. Then the reviews don’t matter so why am I reading them or writing them? Reviews are worthless if they are not the only thing that rates a company.

Reviews come from real people not anonymous users: Slick wording going on here! Yes no anonymous users are allowed, what they mean is that you must have a valid email. You can’t just write as anonymous. But as I said anyone can make up a fictitious email address and then write a review. Yes a real person but still anonymous and not a true review. Angies list would probably counter by saying that they charge for membership to make sure that the person is real, and BIDPETE will counter that if I own a company on Angies list, the monthly fee of $13.60 to be a member is an acceptable cost of doing business to have my employees or friends write positive reviews on my company. I could go on and on, but what I want is for you to look at everything around you with open eyes. Be an educated consumer.

STOP! PAY ATTENTION! This is some serious shit that i am about to drop in your lap. I’m going to give you a few minutes to put the kids to bed, turn off the T.V. get your glasses and a pen and paper. Well are you ready? Let’s focus… This is a preliminary post with more to follow as i continue to research this craziness. Any finance or accounting pros out there please help us out with any info you can share. We all know about the 3 major credit bureaus, Equifax, Trans union, Experian. But you might not know that there are other CLANDESTINE companies who track the rest of your life.(collectively they are known as the FOURTH BUREAU). These companies sell that information to lenders, landlords, employers and even health care providers with out your knowledge or consent. These companies gather data from sources as varied as payday loans, magazine subscriptions, cable subscriptions, utility bills, auto warranties, also purchases of prepaid cards, visits to payday lenders, plus rent-to-own furniture stores, gym memberships, rent payments and cell phone bills. WAIT a f*****g new york minute. Are you listening to the words that are coming out ofmy mouth. These companies know whether your checks have cleared. WHAT! and they scour public records for mentions of your name. SON-OF-A-BITCH this pisses me off! These companies unfairly use your data to draw potentially harmful and unreliable conclusions about your credit worthiness and your ability to pay. Five – facts about the fourth bureau: (One). The fourth bureau collects what the big three don’t. There is no industry standard for the type of data thatcan be used in the fourth bureau. (Two.) 30-70 million U.S. consumers or more do not show up in the big three or have thin credit histories. Ahhhhh let’s think about this for a minute, i wonder who these people could be that are being targeted by these mother f******g vultures. Come on you have been following my blog for a while you know this answer come on its easy. IT’S THE YOUNG STUDENTS, IMMIGRANTS, MINORITIES OR LOW – INCOME CONSUMERS. Surprise, Surprise. (Three.) Fourth bureau data can help you qualify for a loan or better rate – or NOT. For consumers outside the big three, the data in the fourth bureau can help them establish a track record that proves they are financially responsible. Showing that you’ve paid other bills on time may help persuade banks to lend you money. But not all of them are willing to accept the data in place of a traditional credit history. On the other hand, if you have been late on your bills, it may come back to haunt you even if your record at the big three is clean. (four.) You may be charged a fee to look at your records. You can be charged as much as $11.00for your file. However, anyone who hs been denied credit or gotten a bad interest rate can get one free report . (five.) No one knows how accurate the reports are.

Federal regulations do not always require companies to disclose when they share your financial history or with whom, and there is no way to opt out when they do. No standards exists for what types of data should be included in the fourth bureau or how it should be used. No one is even tracking the accuracy of these reports. That has created a virtually impenetrable system n which consumers, particularly the most vulnerable, have little insight into the forces shaping their financial futures.